Marvel: 2011-05-06 - Leave it to Hazmat
Cessily a.k.a. Mercury has been given two three, one being an image inducer and the second being an X-Men comlink for this special mission, and the third being a mission. The mission? Xavier assigned her to follow Jennifer Takeda to and from school to assure that she is safe and secure. If trouble appears, to call in the X-Men for back-up. At first, it is a really boring assignment. Meanie Professor. It seems like a normal evening, the sun is only partially covered by clouds and the wind is picking up a little bit. The smell of rain is in the air. In the near distance are some nasty colored clouds that appear to be rolling in. Not unusual for early May. Still, not all is at it seems. There seems to be a higher traffic level than normal to Jennifer Takeda's home, all casually dressed men though they appear to have something blue wrapped about their upper arms. Strange. Boring. Yeah. Really, really kind of boring. Cess has found excitement in two elements of her task. First, that she's part of the X-Men - or Gen X, at least - and actually getting to help with something. And the second? That image inducer. For a few hours each day, tracking Jennifer to school and back again, it lets Mercury play at being 'normal'. The real tragedy is she'll have to give it back when this is over. Maybe....she could hide it? The young woman lingers about half a block behind Jennifer, dressed in jeans and an NYU hoodie. Her eyes perk up a bit as people start to gather in. Yeah, like Jen really feels safe. She's up in the apartment, and from here she can see the guys with the armbands as easily as the next teenager. She knows what armbands mean, too: they mean, look at me, somebody did something I didn't like (whether that thing was dying or being born) and here's a symbol of my displeasure. Jen glares down at these guys watching her home -- obviously watching her home. And she's been followed, too -- she knows all about this chick who follows her to and from school, reporting her wherabouts to some grand schemer. Jen is pissed off. While things are starting to transpire Marvel Girl is lost in her mind, the telepath busy trying to keep a bead on things. But there really is too much neural activity in one area to really be able to do more than get a vague sense of what's happening, it getting the woman to frown. A hand eventually lifts and rests upon her forehead, fingers pressed in as she tries to think through the buzz. Hank was on stand by and that in and of itself was as hard and annoying as Cess's job. The blue furred x-man sits with his ipad in his hand reading Moby Dick. Though he takes a few minutes every so often to look up and around turning his head slightly to look at Jean. Jen is likely always pissed off at the world, and no, hiding an image inducer from a telepath likely wouldn't work, but it's a nice thought. Jennifer at least made it home safely and it appears as if Mercury's job is done. At least, until a strange array of movement happens. First, a group of men with the blue armbands are entering Jen's apartment building and they are carrying cases. Once inside the building where Mercury can't see, they will open the cases and pull out high tech weapons. They then head up to Jen's apartment, and the young woman will shortly be finding her door broken down. In the meantime, Cyclops is up in the Blackbird with a couple of the X-Men, including Beast, Marvel Girl, and Gambit. Cyclops keeps trying to think about the mission. To and from school, they have been hanging out up here, waiting for Mercury's O.K. that all is well. The fact Professor X is asking for the extra resources and energy to be spent protecting this girl, he knows something is up. He just wishes the Professor would share his suspicions with him. "Mercury alright?" This is asked of Marvel Girl. Cessily adjusts the little devices in her ear. "There's people gathering, Mister Summers," she reports. "They have blue bands on their arms. I'm getting a...weird vibe. But I don't see anything *wrong*," she says. Mercury picks up her pace and tries to close the distance with Jennifer. That's fairly true, yes. There are few people to whom Jen isn't consistently furious. A couple of the X-Men make the list. She's just Googling the meaning of blue arm bands, almost certain it's an anti-mutant thing, when the door of her parents apartment is kicked inwards. She's not in that room, but like any good teenager in a horror movie (and her life is -totally- a horror movie), Jen goes to see what the commotion is. Gambit bends over to pick up the cards that he's been throwing into a helmet. He tucks the playing cards back into his coat pocket, "Mon dieu.. dis is a boring assignment!" he explains but smiles when his eyes shift over to Marvel Girl, "At least dere is good company.. eh chere?" he holds up the queen of hearts which he tosses over towards the red head. His attention goes back to the monitors a second, "What Gambit ever do ta git a babysittin' job like dis?" he gruffs grumpily. "Gambit, will you stop it," Marvel Girl asks while slapping the card out of the air with the use of her telekenesis, this happening just before the report is made. Straightening slightly in her seat, she shakes her head, once more focusing on the group at the girl's home. There's nothing she can make out specifically but rather an over-all sense of chaos. "Cyclops, I think it's time," she says with a twinge of urgency to her voice. "Call the others." Hank looks up from book to look at Gambit. "Awww Gambit, I didn't realize that you valued my company so much. It's refreshing and really what I need to make it through the day. He turns to look up at Jean as she gives Cyclops the word. He sits the ipad down. "What's my marching orders boss? Chaos erupts. Jennifer will get a close up of the blue bands now; they have the FoH symbol on them. And they have some very sci-fi looking weaponry too. One of which is lifted to point at her. "You are coming with us," a neutral sounding but very threatening tone is used by the seeming leader before a net is fired toward poor Jennifer. "Let's see what the fuss is all about." Over the comlink he states, "That is Cyclops, and I'm bringing the Blackbird down for deployment." The Blackbird is soon hovering toward the ground and doesn't quite land before the side door opens. "Let's go X-Men!" He sets for the Blackbird to auto-land after a minute to save him the time of landing it and to faster deploy everyone. In the comlink Mercury will hear, "To us Mercury, stay together." The blast of noise from the Blackbird draws the attackers attention. There are those outside, and there are weapons too. As soon as the X-Men are in a clear view, all hell is likely to break loose. Poor Blackbird. Jen tries to duck the net, fails. "Yeah," she says. "Really don't think so. I'm not one to do this without cause, you know, but trying to kidnap me? That counts as cause. Big time." And then she pulls off her gloves and focuses on blasting the bastards with superheated plasma, surface of the sun type stuff. It's not nearly that hot, but still, hot enough to sting, probably to burn. Gambit extends his quarterstaff and moves to pick up the disguarded card just as he's already jumping out of the plane. The Cajun hits the ground in a well exceuted roll to prevent damage to himself and springs right back to his feet and breaks into a run, "Dun worry Petite.. Gambit is on da way!" the Cajun stops as he reaches the apartment and leaps in through a window. His arms crossed in front of his face so that broken glass and wood don't damage his perfect face. At least their not screaming Hail Hydra! But the FOH/AIM agents are blasting at the X-men with their futuristic weapons. Guns that sucked a lot of energy and super heated the air turning it into plasma. Hank gets scourched as he dives from the ramp of the Black bird. He lets out a growl of pain. His clawed fingers aimed at the closest Hydra agent. His fur already healing. He turns to strike at the agent. Once on location Marvel Girl flies out of the Blackbird, her eyes holding to where the apartment is as she homes in on the people making the attempted grab. A wave of telepathic suggestion is what is used to try and stop this, an inkling of a notion that perhaps this isn't a good idea first only to grow stronger, an implanted welling of fear that is supposed to hint that something unseen is about to attack them. Not exactly Marvel Girl's normal MO but she doesn't have time to treat this with kid gloves. Cessily ducks back and presses against the wall. She winces on hearing the gun go off, and that strange fwooshing noise. "Hurry!" she hisses into her comms. Why is this so much scarier than in those training setups? Maybe she'll just hang out here until the full team arrives. Cyclops said to stay together. Two of the FoH imposters inside go flying back at Jennifer's attack, and all of them inside are starting to feel panicked. "The X-Men are here...regroup, regroup!" They are all running out, and one of them even leaves the net weapon behind - dumb leader. This leaves Gambit in the hallway where the window he busted is, and seeing these men run out. They see him too, and one of them raises a gun to meet his running form, "Get him!" A plasma shot shoots toward Gambit. Cyclops jumps from the plane and lands in a roll, coming up shooting. He almost loses his nose as he jerks to the side of a plasma shot. "They are wearing the Friends of Humanity symbol," he says as he blasts one guy running up toward a distracted Marvel Girl with netting. "But I've never seen them have weapons like this." The words are spoken over the comlink. Cyclops then says, "Mercury, to Marvel Girl. She needs someone watching her back." Course, Cyclops will still be watching them both, but he wants Mercury to learn responsibility in the field and feel productive. "Careful of the weapons, they burn normal human skin." He isn't sure how they would affect Mercury, "Plasma energy based it appears." He is calm and collected, weighing the options now. He will have to trust Gambit and Marvel Girl to get Jennifer out safely while the others handle those outside the place. The Blackbird is currently sporting a few burn marks, which is going to make Cyclops wince later in pain for the poor thing. Jen spots that bo staff guy, grimaces. She'd like to tell him to get out of the way, but he's clearly trying to help her -- so she resists further blasts of radioactive heat, instead focusing on exhaling arsenic and cyanide into the apartment, and emitting higher and higher levels of radiation -- she doesn't want these jackasses getting their hands on her, and if they do she wants it to hurt. Gambit is about to run up the stairs of the apartment complex but stops when he hears the firing of weapons. His eyes narrow as he reaches into his coat pocket and in one smooth motion throws out four charged cards. The pink glowing weapons fly out the busted window and head towards Beast's attackers. The Cajun continues to run up the stairs two and three at a time. The nimble Cajun quickly gets to the floor in which Jennifer's apartment is. Gambit rushes into the hallway and immediately leaps to the side and rolls to avoid the weapons fire. His hand goes into his pocket and pulls out three cards, "Now its Gambit's turn." before the sentence is even finished the Cajun has thrown the charged cards at the men. The narrow hallway makes it too difficult to fight effectively. So all he can do is brace himself and hold up his arms in front of his face as protection from the explosions. Hank lets out a growl ripping the gun out of the AIM's agents hand just as Gambit throws a jack, a two, a six, and a king at the Aim agent blowing the man and away from Hank. The mutant rips the gun into two sending it flying in different directions. The plasma pack rupturing and super heated mater melting the pavement. Beast lets out another growl and goes charging across the street like an angry silver back toward a group of AIM agents with more of the plasma rifles firing at the building. Hank barrels into the first aim agent with a roar taking up the that he mugs from the AIM Agent and goes to bashing the others two with his new toy. The two other AIM agents? There just not quite sure how to deal with the angry simian man. "I said to stop!" Marvel Girl is now close enough to see some of the weapons fire, it getting her to ramp up her own efforts in everything. Hovering in the air, she focuses while staring at those unwelcomed visitors, her eyes narrowed to near slits while she concentrates. The bad guys' weapons are her targets now, the red-head trying to snatch the guns out of their hands. So they're teaming them up by hair color? Not that Mercury's going to question it. She watches as the X-Men come pounding into the apartment building. Her image flickers and drops awya, to reveal the chrome girl in the red uniform. "Miss Grey," she says. "I'll watch your...." and there's probably no need for that, since she seems to have everything in hand. Cessily's arms shift and form into two long blades, and she ducks down, stabbing towards the nearest FoH goon, giving him a few nasty cuts. The FoH wannabes get blasted by Gambit's attack. The explosion singes Jennifer's living rug as the wannasbes are thrown back and almost out the window. The window breaks, but luckily none of them fall out. Lucky for them, and they aren't moving anytime soon. The hallway is damaged, charred and there is a whole in Jennifer's apartment wall. Least she had enough time to free herself from the netting by now, especially if she uses her powers. Weapons go flying up in the air thanks to Marvel Girl's telekinesis, the FoH wannabe agents fleeing in response. The one that tried to again sneak up on Marvel Girl and shot a shot on her is interrupted by the appearing Mercury. He screams in response, and watches as his gun barrel gets in the way and slides apart. His eyes roll up into his head and he falls over backwards, fainting from fright, pain, what have you. Beekeepers aren't known for their courage, just their stupidity. Cyclops speaks into the comlink, "Gambit, status," he heard the explosion and saw some glass come flying down into the street. "Is Ms. Takeda safe?" A feral Beast is rampaging some, and boy, watch those agents scram! Sirens are in the near distance now. At first, everything seems to be winding down. However, upon closer inspection, the wannabe kidnappers have one more plan up their sleeve. Coming through Jennifer's bedroom window is a sneaky agent, as he starts to move to the living room and Jennifer. A needle in his hand to knock her out so he can drag her out. Jen may not (and, in fact, doesn't) notice the sneaky agent. However, the idiot's walking into a room full of poison gas and radiation, so, you know, he won't be happy in awhile. Gambit lowers his arms after a moment to let the chaos from the explosion settle down. Lucky for the Cajun his coat is actually made out of kevlar and not cloth. His body is smoking from the explosion but the men are on the ground which is what his goal was. He narrows his red eyes at the busted door. Instead of rushing in this time he takes his time. Poking at the floor with his staff to check on the floor's structural integrety. He pulls out a card and gives it a charge which makes it glow pink in the dark of the demolished hallway. He pushes the door to Jen's apartment open with his staff and peeks in ever so quickly to make sure his head is going to get shot off, "I'm fine Cyclops.. had to get rid of some annoyances." he says into his com then he calls out into the apartment, "Petite.. are you in dere? Dun worry, you can relax now.. Gambit has arrived." he has this gut feeling like he shouldn't go into the apartment. The running of his targets and the sound of sirens makes Beast drop his club. His fist striking at his chest as he shows a sign of dominance. He starts to vocalize in a inhuman growl. Note for future reference, Hank and plasma not a good combination. Marvel Girl hovers closer once she has the weapons under her control, each one then crushed as if they were made of paper, made to be crumbled in upon itself until they are nothing but useless little balls of trash. "There's one more, it seems," she says over the coms after a quick scan. "Get her out of there." She watches Cessily afterward, making sure she stays safe. Mercury kicks the guy she just disarmed in the stomach, sending him falling away and climbing past him. "Jennifer!?" she calls out. Maybe she should know she has some friends coming. "Got it," she tells Marvel girl. Her legs stretch out and she chases down the hall and bullies her way into the room. "Jennifer! You okay?" she asks, stretching her neck and wrapping around, moving her head to look for breaches in Jennifer's suit. Cyclops shakes his head, "Do you feel better now Beast? Did you indulge your inner beast to your heart's content?" Is Cyclops teasing Beast and being sarcastic perhaps? Maybe. But then he hears Jean's words over the comlink, "Gambit, backup is on its way." He motions for Beast to climb to the windows of the apartment, and he then starts to run inside to head toward the stairs. Neither will reach the two in time. Though Cyclops does move to hold Mercury back when he smells something is wrong, "Stay back," and the order is firm and powerful. Neither of them will get past Gambit just now, who blocks the doorway. "What's that smell?" Before Mercury and Cyclops arrive, Gambit would be the only one to witness Jennifer's almost kidnapping. The FoH wannabe is trying to hold is breathe as he gets ready to stab Jennifer with the needle in the semi-dark living room, the lights having gone out due to the explosion. But just as he is about to stab, he suddenly throws up! Ugh, all over Jennifer's shoulder! He then stumbles back, drops the needle and tries to awkwardly run toward Jennifer's bedroom and the window there. Which is likely, the one Beast will head up. Jen's reaction to a thug puking on her shoulder is immediate, virulent and unprintable. It ends with the comparatively moderate term, "Son of a BITCH!" and then she turns back to the door. "Don't come in if you have to breathe and expect to have kids. S'gotten kinda poisonous in here." She mutters under her breath, putting her gloves back on. Some people can't hold their arsenic. "Be out in a minute. If I've gotta be seen in public in this yellow monstrosity, I'm not gonna be wearing thug puke." Gambit can't help but smile when he hears Jennifer's voice, "Alright petite.. Gambit be out here in da hall when you're ready ta go home." he lowers the charged card and speaks into his com, "Cyclops.. Jen is here and OK. Is dat all we're here ta do?" he pulls out a cigerette and lights it with a charge of his index finger. He takes a deep inhale of the cancer stick and winces as he does so. His hand moves to his side where his bost armor has broken and shattered a bit. The Cajun is hurt more than he's willing to let on. White smoke slowly billows out through his nose while he waits for the girl. Uhm problem Oh fearless leader, Hank isn't responding to the verbal jabs. He turns to look at the bossy red eyed man. He sniffs the air for a moment waves a hand at his nose. He goes climbing up the wall then he sees one of the guys that had shot him with a burny stick. Yes Hank wasn't in a mood for the classics. With that he lets out a feral growl and moves to attack the AIM guy with his claws. Feeling the feralness in Beast, Marvel Girl flies towards where he should be, her mind reaching out to his once she realizes just what is about to happen. 'Sleep' is what he'll hear just before the powerful suggestion hits, the compulsion to slumber being one he will probably be able to fight off for a little while but not with any kind of success at the end. "Oh, ick," Mercury says, stretching back to her normal proportions. Her arm reaches over towards the kitchen, yanking away some towels and bringing them back for Jennifer. "We'll clean you and and get you out of here. Get you out of here," she emphasies. "The jet's waiting," she adds. Cessily moves around Jenn, watching out for other potential attacks as she moves the yellow-suited girl towards the door. "Beast isn't responding," Cyclops says, looking toward Jean for clarification about what is going on. Mercury heads inside the apartment with a reminder: 'Dude, I don't breathe'. But still Cyclops will add, "If you start to feel ill, come back out." What a worry wart! He waits till Mercury starts to help Jennifer before saying, "Professor Xavier will check you over to make sure everything is fine, and I'll have him call your parents to let them know what happened. In the meantime, I'm going to talk to the police. Gambit, go ahead to the Blackbird, it has landed now. Marvel Girl, please see to...Beast," wherever the hell he is. He knows Gambit is hurt, but he isn't going to rub it in the cajun's face either. Gambit watches as the girls exit the room together. He holds up the card that he has charged. He gives it a little more juice so it glows really bright pink and helps to illuminate the damaged hallway, "is way girls.. careful of da ground." then he speaks into his vom, "Cyclops, do you want me to bring out one of da guys I blew up dey aren't dead.. we might get some answers." he looks at the unconcious man on the ground and sighs as he doesn't lookd forward to having tyo cart him out. The Cajun escorts the girls out with his make-shift torch, "Over here girls.. da stairs are right here." he holds the card over the stair well, "Cyclops will be out dere waiting for you." Jean tells Hank to sleep. Hank decides that sleep is such a good idea since it would help with the healing and to be honest he's kinda tuckered out. So he lays down and decides to take a nap. He snores lightly. Jen blinks at Cessily. "Jet? Home?" Her eyes swing to survey the devastation that was her parents apartment. "Mom and dad are going to be pissed. Okay, hold n. I need some stuff. And to leave a note." But it doesn't take her long to pack, and the note amounts to a post-it that reads 'call my cell'. "He is sleeping. I'll bring him out." Marvel Girl focuses and then the sleeping Beast can soon be seen floating out from wherever it was he wound up crashing at, the blue furred man eventually drifting towards the Blackbird. "I'll meet you there, Cyclops." She nods once and floatds towards the aircraft as well, letting their leader make sure everyone else is alright and out of there, her mind needing to stay on making sure she doesn't have a mishap which could easily result in Hank getting dropped on his head. Cessily goes with Jen back out. "Not very mellow?" she asks. She makes a face when Jennifer kicks that FoH member. "Hey," she says with a faintly judgmental tone. "Hi, Gambit," she says as they follow after the cajun. "I think it'll air out in there." It looks like the X-team is heading back out. Good thing they have a jet to get home with. Cyclops nods toward Gambit, "It's fine, the police will collect them and we will be working with them on this one." He then will go down to see the police, and have them gather hazmat suits before examining the crime scene as a precaution and collecting the clawed victim for immediate medical are from Jennifer's bedroom. When all is said and done, he will enter the Blackbird and fly everyone home. Jennifer Takeda will be greatly shocked when the Blackbird enters a secure cliff side entrance to the hanger bay, and then enters an elevator to the sub-level with the medical bay where Professor Xavier is in a yellow hover wheelchair this time. The Professor Xavier will speak to Ms. Takeda about the incident, see to a medical examination and double check her hazmat suit. In the meantime, Cyclops will be assist Gambit in checking out his ribs to make sure they aren't broken and bandaging them up in a very professional manner. Article: DG: 2011-05-07 - Terrorist Attack Against Mutant Teen